19 comments:

"Foreign typewriter manufacturers use a spectrum of letter spacings based upon the metric scale..." He gives 12 (twelve !) different elite sizes and and 6 pica sizes.

He notes that some manufacturers produce their own type, some purchase from one or more outside foundries, some do both, some sell type to other manufacturers and that some manufacturers do some or all of these things at some times and not other times.

Adler, for instance, uses 2.5 mm and 2.6 mm. Olympia uses 2.6 and not 2.5. Those two produce their own type. Hermes gets its type from several different sources, including from Olivetti.

In the old days, I gave myself headaches - nowadays unless I am acquiring a machine I try not to think about it and just try to write. So it depends on how bogged down you want to get :)

This is a fascinating paper and I am positive I've heard of it before but at the time, many years ago, I'd not been interested. I did know a couple of the things from it, like how RaRo made type for a great number of companies.

I have read that toward the end of WWII when Hitler was getting decrepit and more than a little bit potty his vision deteriorated and since he didn't like to be seen wearing reading glasses (he did wear them when no one was around) a special typeface, twice the normal size, was made for him. These were waggishly nicknamed "Fuhrer Typewriters"

I do not know if any of these still exist - if they ever did - but if they did perhaps some papers typed on them are in German or Russian or British archives somewhere (A lot of stuff ended up in the DDR or USSR archives because they got Berlin after all).

As much as I love my non standard typefaces (3/4 of my collection maybe) I do love the clarity of the standard. Curls and waves just doesn't get to the point at times. My largest is a 6CPI learning Smith Corona with a san serif typeface that I have yet to touch, and my smallest would have to be a 13 (or something) from my Hermes Baby. I've never seen - or heard of a typeface larger than 5cpi! I'd love to see it if it does exist. I do love 11cpi! Like Goldilocks - it's juuuuuuust nice :p

Well, the best special type is the kind that you can use for everything, like the Congress Elite on this typecast! Royal also made a great deal of beautiful and useful typefaces in the 50s and 60s that seem to pop up on QDLs and Futuras rather often. (As you can see in the NOMDA type samples)

I do have one portable with a 6cpi typeface, an early-50's Silent Super. It is an interesting and rugged experience to type on it:

Buckaroo Banzai : "John Parker, take this wheel. Just, just hold on, that's good. It flies like a truck."John Parker: "Good. What is a truck?"

Let's just say the experience is like driving a tiny Japanese pickup truck with fat 4WD tires and a huge engine down a rough dirt washboard road. The machine *will* move around, so a good felt or rubber typing mat is recommended. :D

Wow. To have a typeface that large on a typewriter with a normal carriage! I've only seen wide-carriage Galaxie style Smith-Coronas with 6cpi.

Well the sort of tension you'd have to have on the carriage to keep it from moving too slowly! And then have that tension applied at a twice as great distance as elite. It's just asking to feel like a totally different machine. It's a good thing they never made the cheapest typewriters with type that large or they'd break themselves apart.

My preference is still Techno Pica or whatever some manufacturers call it. (unless I finally get a mill) For example Facit calls it Cubic Pica. I like script also.

I do know what you mean about all the different pitches. When I got my first machine that had some kind of bug in it that bit me and caused be to start collecting typewriters I found by pitch is was not pica nor was it elite. That is because as you stated European elite is a different pitch than U.S. elite.

I do like collecting different type faces though. That has drastically caused me to cease buying every interesting machine I see that I can afford.

My smallest typeface is about 23CPI, found on my Facit TP1. As for largest, I have an Olympia SG3 with a ridiculously large typeface that I haven't featured on my blog yet. I'm unsure of the CPI, but it is just as tall as it is long and completely useless for most things. Nevertheless, they are both neat typewriters.

My preferred typeface is the standard Olympia elite, at about 12CPI. It is attractive, small, and perfect for just about everything. I compare all other typefaces to it, really.

Surely you must feature it soon. :D I just find it so incredibly curious that people actually were willing to spend the equivalent of almost a thousand dollars now on a device so specialised, especially when it is a portable like your Facit.

Finally we are evolving to a point that I have been insisting on all along. People have been confused because "Hey, your elite doesn't look like my elite! What's going on?" The answer is that there is no particular, definitive "ELITE". "Elite" just means "smaller than pica" and "pica" means "larger than elite". In the US, these are commonly 12 and 10 characters per inch, respectively. When a manufacturer names their offering "ThisOrThat Elite" they are just telling the general public that this is the smaller end of their regular typesize offerings, and the same for "ThisOrThat Pica" on the larger end. It's an easy reference for general consumers. "Do you want little or big type, Billy?"

These consumers never saw the typeface catalogs so, just like typospherians in their earlier days, they didn't have to confront the variety. They just learned the two terms and got confused when the variety snuck into their consciousness. (The large variety in the catalogs was for special needs, like architects or script writers or preachers/orators or dainty correspondents or classical scholars or for one-upping the competition, etc.)

Some of the confusion comes from the familiar variety of computer typefaces where each variation seems to have its own distinct name; it leads one to think that Pica must be distinct from every other styling. Not so--different systems. (Though let me assure you that delving deeper into computer typefaces reveals its share of oddities.) It's kind of like this exchange, which I have heard more than a couple of times: "What software did you use to produce this document?""Oh, I used Adobe."

But I never thought about the consumer not seeing the typeface catalog before, and you're right. I noticed an ad that basically showed an offering 4 different typefaces on SCM made Sears typewriters, just as a list. It seems like, of all the companies, Olympia was most forward with their assortment of type, because I've seen actual typeface catalogs pointed towards the consumer.

I have so many thoughts running together at this point and I'll just sum them up by wishing I could have been there and seen what the process was to get a special typeface on a new typewriter. Obviously some were easier to come by than others because they are very prevalent, such as Congress Elite for European typewriters and then some of the lovely styles on Royals like Windsor and Herald Elite.

My smallest is 16 cpi gothic on a full-size Remington Noiseless from the 50's. I use adding machine paper in it. It was sold off by Seattle Art Museum, where it had been used for labeling small exhibits such as coins. You may recall I sent a sample to Adwoa for comparison with her 18 cpi that had taller narrower characters.

It needs a little detachable roll of adding machine paper right on the back! And if it was a little portable, -that- would be a cool thing to bring round with you. Have a little cutter blade at the back too. Type people tiny messages and tear them right off! :)